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The Last Interview
Jane Jacobs: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
“Jane Jacobs is the kind of writer who produces in her readers such changed ways of looking at the world that she becomes an oracle, or final authority.” —The New York Sun
Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “perhaps the single most influential work in the history of town planning,” Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities was instantly recognized as a masterpiece upon its publication in 1961. In the decades that followed, Jacobs remained a brilliant and revered commentator on architecture, urban life, and economics until her death in 2006. These interviews capture Jacobs at her very best and are an essential reminder of why Jacobs was—and remains—unrivaled in her analyses and her ability to cut through cant and received wisdom.
Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “perhaps the single most influential work in the history of town planning,” Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities was instantly recognized as a masterpiece upon its publication in 1961. In the decades that followed, Jacobs remained a brilliant and revered commentator on architecture, urban life, and economics until her death in 2006. These interviews capture Jacobs at her very best and are an essential reminder of why Jacobs was—and remains—unrivaled in her analyses and her ability to cut through cant and received wisdom.
128 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 2016
17 people are currently reading
331 people want to read
About the author
Jane Jacobs
69 books702 followersJane Jacobs, OC, O.Ont (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an American-born Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States. The book has been credited with reaching beyond planning issues to influence the spirit of the times.
Along with her well-known printed works, Jacobs is equally well-known for organizing grassroots efforts to block urban-renewal projects that would have destroyed local neighborhoods. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and after moving to Canada in 1968, equally influential in canceling the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of highways under construction.
Along with her well-known printed works, Jacobs is equally well-known for organizing grassroots efforts to block urban-renewal projects that would have destroyed local neighborhoods. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, and after moving to Canada in 1968, equally influential in canceling the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of highways under construction.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 29, 2018
What's not to love about Jane Jacobs? A brilliant thinker, unafraid to go against the tide, wise, capable, articulate. Unfortunately these interviews aren't a great format for her; they do not provide sufficient depth to properly explore the ideas raised - and the number of typos suggest further editing might just be in order. If you're a fan, you'll likely read this anyway, but if you're new to Jacobs, I recommend Systems of Survival, Dark Days Ahead, or The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
December 30, 2021
A collection of interviews rely to some extent on the skills of the interviewer to tease out the insights of their subject. This collection runs from 1962, when ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ had just made Jacobs justly famous, to the last interview in 2005, not long before her death the following year. The first interview reflects more Jacobs’ early activism in New York, opposing ill-conceived and sometimes rapacious redevelopment schemes. Her thinking gradually scales up, a process that is revealed in these conversations. The self-serving financial promises of those initial schemes leads her to see the false premises on which they were based more universally within economics. Cities and the supply regions that they centre remained a focus of her thought, but within the broader context of how economies were claimed to work. The observations on which these rest are, however, those that strike the observer and not necessarily the most important. They also rest upon various assumptions about the relationship between cities, economies and state form that ought to be questioned. This comes out most powerfully in the last interview. Ostensibly this is conducted by a Quebecker about the prospects for independence for Quebec. Nonetheless, it develops into a wide-ranging and often prescient analysis of contemporary developments and the problems of reading them through an ahistorical neophilia. As a European observer I was particularly drawn to her point that inadequate discourse around the then plans for an EU constitution risked fuelling nationalism. Such apercus demonstrate that Jacobs was a penetrating thinker in time as well as space.
February 28, 2023
Having enjoyed The Last Interview featuring Nora Ephron, I was looking forward to reading the collection of interviews with Jane Jacobs. Reading Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ten years ago was literally life-changing - the book gave me a whole different lens with which to understand cities. I became deeply interested in urban studies and went back to school to pursue a post-grad degree in the area.
Unfortunately, this collection of 4 interviews - Disturber of the Peace (Eve Auchinloss and Nancy Lynch, Mademoiselle, Oct 1962); How Westway will Destroy New York (Roberta Brandes Gratz, New York, Feb 1978); Godmother of the American City (James Howard Kunstler, Metropolis, March 2001); and The Last Interview (Robin Philpot; The Question of Separatism, May 2005) - was a bit of a letdown.
The first interview from 1962 made for a promising start. We get a feel here of Jacobs' views on cities - that they "have to be very fertile palces economically and socially, for the plans of thousands and tens of thousands of people…if we have big cities that are unable to offer [diverse] services [and support non-standardised commerce and culture], then we are not getting the salient advantages." As Jacobs puts it: "What's the point of having the disadvantages - and they do exist - and none of the advantages [of cities]?"
She advocates for human-centred rather than automobile-centred cities:
"We should get rid of automobiles, but in a positive way. What we need is more things that conflict with their needs - wider sidewalks, more space for trees, even double lines of trees on some sidewalks, dead ends not for foot traffic but for automobiles, more frequent places for people to cross streets, more traffic lights - they're an abomination to automobiles, but a boon to pedestrians. And then we should have more convenient public transportation…We constantly sacrifice all kinds of amenities for automobiles. I think we can wear down their number by sacrificing the roadbed to some of our other needs instead. It's a switch in values."
And criticises planning orthodoxy:
"this grandiosity is inherent in the orthodox planning dogma and it's very simple-minded. You can't create the texture of a living city in one fell swoop that way. Things must grow. The kind of planning for a city that would really work would be a sort of informed, intelligent improvisation. Which is what most of our planning in life is in any case. All plans - business, your children's education, whatever - are made like this, playing it by ear all along the way. Urban renewal, in particular, is a very peculiar form of planning. The whole notion of simultaneous uplift for an area has nothing to do with real life or growth….There's this notion that certain groups of people must be sacrificed for the common good, but nobody quite defines what this common good is. Actually, of course, it is made up of a lot of smaller goods."
Her criticism of architecture in particular is damning:
"architecture with a capital A has become more and more interested in itself and less and less interested in the world that uses it….In terms of function in the old sense one of the most "universal spaces" is an old brownstone house. Look at the different uses these can be put to: they are used as homes, shops, schools, offices, and none of these uses requires more than a minimum of change, because the combination of large and small rooms is remarkably adaptable. When architecture gets far away from interest in how it's used and in the world that uses it, and more interested in itself, then it's narcissistic. And like all things that get far from the truth it begins to have to be smart-aleck and say sensational things - about itself, because it has nothing else to talk about."
How Westway Will Destroy New York starts off by examining Jacobs' opposition to the Lower Manhattan Expressway; Jacobs had just come out of saving the West Village from being bulldozed and redeveloped, when Father LaMountain of the Church of the Most Holy Cruxifix on Broome Street approached her for help as his church would have been destroyed by the new expressway. It gives a good sense of Jacobs' views on urban redevelopment, how at best it disrupts the urban fabric and at worst destroys it, and the problematic cost benefit analyses supporting urban redevelopment projects. While highway advocates frequently argue that such efforts create jobs to revitalise the economy, Jacobs argues:
"they never tell us who will get those jobs. And they never count the jobs that may be lost in the displacement process that inevitably accompanies new development. A trade-in of the Westway money, for transit rehabilitation plus a modest rebuilding of the West Side Highway, according to a six-month Sierra Club study, would deliver 103,000 man-years of employment, both inside and outside of New York City; Westway promises only 78,000 and most of those will be outside the region - in plants manufacturing the steel, cement, and other component parts and materials. What's more, most of the promised Westway jobs are temporary; but many permanent jobs are endangered by the displacement of businesses along the Westway construction site."
The last two interviews are much less successful (at least to me). Godmother of the American City is a wide ranging conversation from Jacobs' move to New York City, how she ventured "into the life of a public intellection", Jacobs and her families to move to Canada, partly so her pacifist sons would not have to be drafted for the war, her relationship with Lewis Mumford, Jacobs' views on economics. After a couple of pages, the interview starts to meander. This might work perhaps if you were watching the interview live or even listening to the interview on the radio/podcast. But I'm not so sure this works in print. And there were definitely some segments where I found myself asking what the point of the segment was, really and whether the interviewer needed to talk quite so much. Like when Kunstler basically started quizzing Jacobs on her thoughts on various major capitals.
And in The Last Interview, Robin Philpot delves into Quebec separatism, which was an area Jacobs delved into in her later years. This topic is perhaps overly niche for a general audience to appreciate
Unfortunately, this collection of 4 interviews - Disturber of the Peace (Eve Auchinloss and Nancy Lynch, Mademoiselle, Oct 1962); How Westway will Destroy New York (Roberta Brandes Gratz, New York, Feb 1978); Godmother of the American City (James Howard Kunstler, Metropolis, March 2001); and The Last Interview (Robin Philpot; The Question of Separatism, May 2005) - was a bit of a letdown.
The first interview from 1962 made for a promising start. We get a feel here of Jacobs' views on cities - that they "have to be very fertile palces economically and socially, for the plans of thousands and tens of thousands of people…if we have big cities that are unable to offer [diverse] services [and support non-standardised commerce and culture], then we are not getting the salient advantages." As Jacobs puts it: "What's the point of having the disadvantages - and they do exist - and none of the advantages [of cities]?"
She advocates for human-centred rather than automobile-centred cities:
"We should get rid of automobiles, but in a positive way. What we need is more things that conflict with their needs - wider sidewalks, more space for trees, even double lines of trees on some sidewalks, dead ends not for foot traffic but for automobiles, more frequent places for people to cross streets, more traffic lights - they're an abomination to automobiles, but a boon to pedestrians. And then we should have more convenient public transportation…We constantly sacrifice all kinds of amenities for automobiles. I think we can wear down their number by sacrificing the roadbed to some of our other needs instead. It's a switch in values."
And criticises planning orthodoxy:
"this grandiosity is inherent in the orthodox planning dogma and it's very simple-minded. You can't create the texture of a living city in one fell swoop that way. Things must grow. The kind of planning for a city that would really work would be a sort of informed, intelligent improvisation. Which is what most of our planning in life is in any case. All plans - business, your children's education, whatever - are made like this, playing it by ear all along the way. Urban renewal, in particular, is a very peculiar form of planning. The whole notion of simultaneous uplift for an area has nothing to do with real life or growth….There's this notion that certain groups of people must be sacrificed for the common good, but nobody quite defines what this common good is. Actually, of course, it is made up of a lot of smaller goods."
Her criticism of architecture in particular is damning:
"architecture with a capital A has become more and more interested in itself and less and less interested in the world that uses it….In terms of function in the old sense one of the most "universal spaces" is an old brownstone house. Look at the different uses these can be put to: they are used as homes, shops, schools, offices, and none of these uses requires more than a minimum of change, because the combination of large and small rooms is remarkably adaptable. When architecture gets far away from interest in how it's used and in the world that uses it, and more interested in itself, then it's narcissistic. And like all things that get far from the truth it begins to have to be smart-aleck and say sensational things - about itself, because it has nothing else to talk about."
How Westway Will Destroy New York starts off by examining Jacobs' opposition to the Lower Manhattan Expressway; Jacobs had just come out of saving the West Village from being bulldozed and redeveloped, when Father LaMountain of the Church of the Most Holy Cruxifix on Broome Street approached her for help as his church would have been destroyed by the new expressway. It gives a good sense of Jacobs' views on urban redevelopment, how at best it disrupts the urban fabric and at worst destroys it, and the problematic cost benefit analyses supporting urban redevelopment projects. While highway advocates frequently argue that such efforts create jobs to revitalise the economy, Jacobs argues:
"they never tell us who will get those jobs. And they never count the jobs that may be lost in the displacement process that inevitably accompanies new development. A trade-in of the Westway money, for transit rehabilitation plus a modest rebuilding of the West Side Highway, according to a six-month Sierra Club study, would deliver 103,000 man-years of employment, both inside and outside of New York City; Westway promises only 78,000 and most of those will be outside the region - in plants manufacturing the steel, cement, and other component parts and materials. What's more, most of the promised Westway jobs are temporary; but many permanent jobs are endangered by the displacement of businesses along the Westway construction site."
The last two interviews are much less successful (at least to me). Godmother of the American City is a wide ranging conversation from Jacobs' move to New York City, how she ventured "into the life of a public intellection", Jacobs and her families to move to Canada, partly so her pacifist sons would not have to be drafted for the war, her relationship with Lewis Mumford, Jacobs' views on economics. After a couple of pages, the interview starts to meander. This might work perhaps if you were watching the interview live or even listening to the interview on the radio/podcast. But I'm not so sure this works in print. And there were definitely some segments where I found myself asking what the point of the segment was, really and whether the interviewer needed to talk quite so much. Like when Kunstler basically started quizzing Jacobs on her thoughts on various major capitals.
And in The Last Interview, Robin Philpot delves into Quebec separatism, which was an area Jacobs delved into in her later years. This topic is perhaps overly niche for a general audience to appreciate
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2016
These interviews, more so than her writing, show Jacobs to be both a person with strong and unique ideas and eminently reasonable. To a degree that I assume many of her more passionate followers are not. It made me wish I could hang out with her even more. Especially now.
April 28, 2017
a little redundant simply because of the subject matter, but i LOVE this woman so it's hard for me to come up with negatives. if you want to learn about jane jacobs, this is a good way to do it.
February 21, 2023
In this collection, there are four interviews with Jane Jacobs spanning from 1962 to 2005.
I read the last interview first which was a Canadian topic of Quebec separatism. In the discussion there were two separatist scenarios pictured with examples from other parts of the world - win/win or lose/lose, due to the health of subsequent trading situations. There was no win/lose or lose/win.
The 1962 interview displays Jacobs’ gritty hold to her own reasoning. Along with the fire she must have had in her belly, she is encouraging of all others to do the same: to trust themselves more.
“After all, everybody who lives in the city can be an expert about cities.”
In the 1978 interview, readers learn more about how the activism reached a ceiling and how difficult and testing that can be. Grit and wit are both present in her recount of the interesting series of events!
From the 2001 interview:
Kunstler: You were born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and you spent really the prime of your life living in Manhattan— in Greenwich Village specifically.
Jacobs: Well, I wouldn’t say that.
Kunstler: No?
Jacobs: [chuckles] I’m still in the prime of my life.
…
The two go on to a long discussion about moving to Canada and comparing values held about urban renewal, world cities and economics.
Overall this was a surprising, informative and insightful read!
I read the last interview first which was a Canadian topic of Quebec separatism. In the discussion there were two separatist scenarios pictured with examples from other parts of the world - win/win or lose/lose, due to the health of subsequent trading situations. There was no win/lose or lose/win.
The 1962 interview displays Jacobs’ gritty hold to her own reasoning. Along with the fire she must have had in her belly, she is encouraging of all others to do the same: to trust themselves more.
“After all, everybody who lives in the city can be an expert about cities.”
In the 1978 interview, readers learn more about how the activism reached a ceiling and how difficult and testing that can be. Grit and wit are both present in her recount of the interesting series of events!
From the 2001 interview:
Kunstler: You were born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and you spent really the prime of your life living in Manhattan— in Greenwich Village specifically.
Jacobs: Well, I wouldn’t say that.
Kunstler: No?
Jacobs: [chuckles] I’m still in the prime of my life.
…
The two go on to a long discussion about moving to Canada and comparing values held about urban renewal, world cities and economics.
Overall this was a surprising, informative and insightful read!
June 24, 2018
The first I've encountered of this "Last Interview" series. I'm not sure what I was expecting from it, except to learn a bit more about Jane Jacobs. I've known about her, and her influence on challenging "urban renewal" for some time. The Last Interviews gives a pretty good overview of some of her interests over time, but I guess I've learned that I don't particularly enjoy reading interviews. Something to keep in mind for future reading, I suppose.
May 18, 2023
"But there are two ways you can encounter things in the world that are different. One is that everything that comes in reinforces what you already believe and everything that you know. The other thing is that you stay flexible enough or curious enough and maybe unsure of yourself enough – or maybe you are more sure of yourself, I don’t know which it is – but the new things that come in keep reforming your world view."
February 11, 2022
You're in the presence of one of the few modern trailblazers here.
(However, James Kuntsler as one of the interviewers...doesn't age well.)
(However, James Kuntsler as one of the interviewers...doesn't age well.)
November 26, 2017
Underwhelming but worth the read to learn about her writing on the question of Quebecois independence, which I didn’t know about.
September 23, 2018
I've concluded that I've read almost all I can by Jane Jacobs that would be new information. This book, sadly, only reinforced that idea.
August 8, 2020
A fun read, and a totally different perspective (urban planning) than what I've normally sought out in the past. I'm excited to read more of her work.
Want to read
June 24, 2016These interviews capture Jacobs at her very best and are an essential reminder of why Jacobs was—and remains—unrivaled in her analyses and her ability to cut through cant and received wisdom.
Read
January 15, 2019"And a lot of these people, they learn something, and they are so sure of it, and it's a terrible threat to them. I don't think it's so much of an intellectual threat, but an emotional threat: their whole worldview will have to go through that upsetting thing of being confused." p 71
^^ THIS QUOTE. On why humans do not apply new learnings / refuse to change despite ample evidence that policies / decisions / etc are not functional.
Jane Jacobs loves The Netherlands. p 93
Also, the Jacobs family moved to Toronto to avoid the draft for their boys! I had...no idea. And am fascinated. To even imagine, that Jane who loved NYC so much, lived elsewhere for so long. And passed there. We are all vast.
^^ THIS QUOTE. On why humans do not apply new learnings / refuse to change despite ample evidence that policies / decisions / etc are not functional.
Jane Jacobs loves The Netherlands. p 93
Also, the Jacobs family moved to Toronto to avoid the draft for their boys! I had...no idea. And am fascinated. To even imagine, that Jane who loved NYC so much, lived elsewhere for so long. And passed there. We are all vast.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews